


Star Bright

by keep_waking_up



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, M/M, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-05 22:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12198849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keep_waking_up/pseuds/keep_waking_up
Summary: The stars spoke to him sometimes.





	Star Bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [riyku](https://archiveofourown.org/users/riyku/gifts).



> Written for the prompt "starlight" for riyku for spnspringfling.

The stars spoke to him sometimes.

This might be odd, somewhere else in the world. But up in the Far North, things went a bit odd. Nothing too big; sorcerers and giants and cursed kings were still the stuff of bedtime tales and old man’s myths. But there was a woman in the village who could bring water to boil with the touch of her pinky and a fisherman who always caught exactly thirteen fish, no matter the weather or season. The Northerners didn’t think of it as magic, but call it what you will, there was no question that things were a bit funny up in the Far North.

That was why Jared wasn’t really bothered that the stars spoke to him, if a bit disappointed. It was a pretty useless Gift when it came down to it. But he only regretted it a little, because the stars had beautiful chiming voices and when he wandered at night, he was never alone.

His ma would probably never have let him wander about if he hadn’t had the stars, come to think of it. The singing voices kept him safe, ensured he didn’t stumble through weak ice or into a _skerpentr_ den. When he went out into the night on his own, his ma only sighed and warned him not to tire himself out too much; he still needed to his share of work the next day.

Jared passed twenty Dark Seasons before things changed.

The Lights were dancing in the sky. Jared did not stray too far from his village while the colors wove their bright patterns; the stars’ voices were weaker when the Lights shone and they could not protect him while purples, blues, and greens were splashed across the sky like paints on a canvas. He could still admire the brilliant hues though, which is what he was doing when he heard the star fall.

It streaked across the sky with a piercing shriek. It called out to its family, its thousands of cousins, in heart-aching confusion as it fell quickly and inevitably toward the earth.

Before he could even think about it, Jared was running after it.

Perhaps the stars sped his way, lined his feet with cosmic dust and set it aflame, because he never ran faster, before or since. The maze of the arctic at night shaped to his will as he leapt over frozen lakes and charged past slumbering beasts. His heart thundered out in time to the falling star’s siren call. He arrived just as the screaming ended and the star crashed into the ground.

He did not know what he expected the star to look like, only that he was surprised when its body was distinctly humanoid. It lay slumped on the ground for just a few moments before it began to move slowly and awkwardly into a sitting position. It reminded him of the babies in the village with its first struggles, but it was a much quicker learner than any human child. By the time it had found its feet, it was more graceful than Jared himself.

By the time it found its feet, it was also clear that it was, perhaps, not the most accurate descriptor, as the star was distinctly male. Even the distance, though, could not hide the fact that the star was far lovelier than any person Jared had met of either gender.

Worried he would startle it, Jared approached as slowly as he could. “Star?” he called out softly as he moved forward. “Star, are you alright?”

It spun swiftly around at his approach, bright eyes wide and curious. It seemed to take him a moment to focus his gaze, but when he did, he smiled wide, expression uninhibited. “I know you,” he said, and his voice still held the chiming qualities of his heavenly cousins, but was decidedly more guttural. “You’re Jared. Star-speaker.”

Jared puffed up a bit with pride. “Yes. That’s me.” He sobered a bit, remembering. “I heard you when you fell. You sounded…”

Just as he would never run as fast as on the night, he would also never again hear a cry of such pure terror.

The star’s hands flexed, seemingly involuntarily. “It is a long way to fall,” he replied gravely. “I did not realize.”

Jared was now within just a few lengths from the star. The star’s features, which had been striking from afar, were nearly overwhelming so close. Jared wanted to reach out and touch him, but was afraid he would burn as hot as the stars still in the sky. “You meant to do it then?” he asked instead. “You meant to fall?”

The star laughed, and when he did, he sounded nearly human. “We cannot fall without meaning to,” he said, sounding almost amused. “It is always a choice.”

“Why would you do it then?” Jared asked, completely bewildered. “Why would you give up the sky and all your cousins and your view of the earth and all the cosmos?”

The star took a single step forward, and tilted his head in a way that might have seemed coy, if he was a human. “Maybe you’d do it,” he said, “if you loved a human enough.” Tentatively, he reached one hand forward and brushed it lightly over Jared’s cheek. Jared was right; it burned through his senses like a lightning strike. “Don’t you know me, Jared?”

There was something familiar about the star, something in the back of Jared’s mind that he couldn’t quite see. He’d spoken with hundreds—no thousands—of stars over the course of his lifetime; half the time, they seemed to meld together into one singular, far-away voice. 

But no, he realized suddenly, that wasn’t quite right. Because there had been one voice that had stayed with him on both the clearest of nights and the stormiest. One voice that pushed through the _aurora_ to whisper in his ear faintly. One voice that had murmured a name to him, something entirely unique and unpronounceable with his human tongue, which he’d attempted to mimic even so. One voice that had suddenly disappeared when he’d passed fourteen Dark Seasons. One voice that he’d mourned.

“Jensen?” He gasped, the old nickname coming back to him in a rush. “Jensen, is that you?”

And Jensen smiled and surged forward so their bodies were pressed together, embracing. “I’m sorry it took me so long,” he answered, and this close, Jared could see that his eyes were the green of the sky’s dancing Lights. “I had to fall very far to get here. But I missed you when the sun shone and I missed you when the Lights were too bright for you to hear me. I didn’t want to have to miss you anymore.”

Then he kissed Jared. The glory of him burned through Jared’s mind and everything changed.

 

.

 

Jared had never wandered the nights alone before, but from then on, he was not only guided by the stars in the sky, but also by the one beside him.


End file.
